Real Fit Podcast Ep. 39 | Maor Tiyouri, Israeli Olympic runner on resilience, confidence, and trusting yourself
Maor Tiyouri
In episode 39 of the Real Fit podcast, I interview Maor Tiyouri, an Israeli professional runner who lives and trains right here in Boulder. (Fun fact: I used to work out at the same gym as her and she’s been on my list of people I wanted to interview since before I even launched the Real Fit podcast.)
A two-time Olympic marathon runner, she represented Israel in Rio in 2016 and in Tokyo in 2020, which were held in 2021 because of COVID. A three-time Israeli national champion, Maor won the 1500m and 5000m in 2013 and the 1500m in 2015. She also held an Israeli record in the 5000m. She’s competed in three World Athletic Championships in the half marathon in 2018 and 2020 and in the marathon in 2017.
Right now, the Olympic runner is training to represent Israel once again in the marathon at the upcoming World Championships in Eugene on July 18th.
A self-proclaimed coffee snob, Maor is coached by Stephen Jones and works part-time as a PR junior account manager at Verde Brand Communications.
Connect with Maor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maor_tiyouri/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/maor.tiyouri/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tiyouri
In this episode, we talk about…
Maor’s love-hate relationship with pro running
Why she decided to work with an agent
Getting COVID right before her Tokyo qualifying marathon
Constantly changing her PT plan as a result of many injuries
The silver lining of injuries and discovering new pursuits
Discovering road cycling and doing a century — a 100-mile ride — on a borrowed bike without proper bike shoes and clipless pedals (!!!)
Her relationship with food
Working with a sports psychologist
How Maor avoids the comparison trap
The importance of process goals
Injury prevention
The importance of following her own path
The most challenging thing she’s been through
The moment she knew she’d go pro
Why she came to the U.S.
The difference between training among men and women
Her favorite Israeli food
Quotes
[Running is] something that I love to do and I'm passionate about, and I've been doing basically my whole life but it's also tough. Sometimes I kind of hate it.
Because I had kind of like a string of injuries, one after the other, I couldn't really rush anything. I had to kind of surrender to where I am and you don't see it at the time, but you kind of have to make the best out of it and kind of have the right mindset to think okay, well maybe that's what it is right now.
I consider my relationship food healthy because I think it's also beyond fuel for performance. It also has emotional connection to it, and cultural, and social. So I think food is more than that.
Sometimes you do compare yourself to other people, but then I kind of have to remind myself that I know what I'm doing and what I'm doing is fine. And that's also part of being a professional re: reminding yourself that I need to follow what's good for me
My psychologist is a clinical psychologist and she's also a professional athlete herself, which is helpful. So we get to talk about life, too, which I think is a big part of your performance, like everything is connected. And so if something is pressing in my personal life, we address that.
I don't think it's serving me to know what other people are doing. I think that goes back to being a professional and trusting my coach and trusting my body and the process that I go through with my coach.
I think it's definitely helpful when people are confident in themselves, knowing that we don't always have to race each other. Like, we can work with each other to make all of us better.
I think it's my superpower, but also my Achilles heel, that I feel a lot of things.
You eventually will know what you need to do or what you want, because it's inside of you already. And you have to listen to it.
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